Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology

School of Management Sciences

Business Communication & Presentation Skills – HM 101
PRACTICE
Fall, 2024

NAME REG
FACULTY DATE

Each group of sentences in the following question could be written as a short paragraph. Circle the
letter of the topic sentence in each case. To find the topic sentence, ask yourself, “Which is a general
statement supported by the specific details in the other three statements?”

1.

a. Food and toiletries can be purchased at bulk prices.

b. The price of gasoline is cheaper at a warehouse club.

c. My family and I enjoy shopping at warehouse clubs.

d. My children love the food samples.

2.

a. Instead of talking on the telephone, we send text messages.

b. People rarely talk to one another these days.

c. Rather than talking with family members, we sit silently in front of the TV or computer all evening.

d. In cars, we ignore our traveling companions to listen to the radio.

3.

a. Once I completely forgot to study for a history final.

b. During finals week, something awful always happens.

c. The city bus was twenty minutes late on the day of my English final.

d. Another time, the battery in my calculator died during my math final.

4.

a. Today’s retail environment relies on a variety of technologies.

b. Cash registers operate on point-of-sale software.

c. Merchandise is tracked through hand-held barcode scanners.

d. Anti-shoplifting devices help reduce retail theft.

Each topic sentence in this section is followed by two sets of supporting details. Identify the set that
provides specific support for the point.

1. Topic sentence: Alonzo was relieved when he received the results from his physical exam.

a. Alonzo’s blood pressure was 120/80, which is within the normal range for men. His cholesterol ratio
was below 4, which is good for men of his age.

b. Alonzo’s doctor told him that his blood pressure was normal. He also learned that his cholesterol
levels were normal.

c. Both

d. None

2. Topic sentence: When preparing meals on a budget, canned meats and beans provide cost-effective
alternatives.

a. Canned meat can be used rather than fresh meat to prepare meals. Canned fish can also be used.
Canned beans are another alternative when preparing economical meals.

b. Spam can be used instead of sirloin beef to prepare stews and stir-fry dishes. Canned tuna can be
used to make baked casseroles and pasta meals. Canned kidney, pinto, and black beans can be used
instead of ground beef to make chili and grilled burgers.

c. Both

d. None

3. Topic sentence: My college campus provides students with valuable resources.

a. The writing tutors at the Learning Center help students find topics and assist them with revision and
editing. The reference librarians at the library help students locate appropriate books and online
journals for their research papers. The academic advisers at the Counseling Office notify students about
required and elective courses during registration.

b. Tutors on campus help students with the different stages of their writing. Librarians help students
with their research by locating different sources in the library and online. Counselors on campus provide
students with useful information on course registration.

c. Both

d. None

4. Topic sentence: [Link] provides students with a reliable source of information for
finding out information about their professors.

a. On [Link], students evaluate their professors. Professors are scored on their quality of
teaching. They are also rated in other areas. The most helpful section of a rating is the user comments.
b. On [Link], students give their professors a “scorecard.” Professors are scored on their
quality of teaching under the categories “good,” “average,” and “poor.” They are also rated in terms of
“easiness,” “clarity,” and “helpfulness.” Some teachers are even awarded a “hot” chili pepper rating.
The user comments—the most helpful section of the Web site—allows students to write honestly about
what they liked and disliked about their professors.

c. Both

d. None

5. Topic sentence: Employers are providing different work options to help employees reduce the cost of
commuting to and from work.

a. Some employers are allowing their employees to work from home one day a week. Some employers
are providing a condensed work week. Some employers are encouraging transportation alternatives and
providing public transit incentives.

b. Some employers are allowing employees to telecommute one day a week by using their home
computer, the Internet, and phone and video conferencing. Some employers are condensing the work
week from five eight-hour days to four ten-hour days. Some employers are encouraging employees to
car pool, and they are paying for monthly bus and rail passes

c. Both

d. None

The details in your paper must all clearly relate to and support your opening point. If a detail does not
support your point, leave it out. Otherwise, your paper will lack unity. For example, see if you can
circle the letter of the two sentences that do not support the following topic sentence.

1. Topic sentence: Dr. Eliot is a very poor teacher.

a. He cancels class frequently with no explanation.

b. When a student asks a question that he can’t answer, he becomes irritated with the student.

c. He got his PhD at a university in another country.

d. He’s taught at the college for many years and is on a number of faculty committees.

e. He puts off grading papers until the end of the semester, and then returns them all at once.

2. Topic sentence: Some doctors seem to think it is all right to keep patients waiting.

a. Pharmaceutical sales representatives sometimes must wait hours to see a doctor.

b. The doctors stand in the hallway chatting with nurses and secretaries even when they have a waiting
room full of patients.

c. Patients sometimes travel long distances to consult with a particular doctor.

d. When a patient calls before an appointment to see if the doctor is on time, the answer is often yes
even when the doctor is two hours behind schedule.
e. Some doctors schedule appointments in a way that ensures long lines, to make it appear that they are
especially skillful.

3. Topic sentence: Several factors were responsible for the staggering loss of lives when the Titanic sank.
a. More than 1,500 people died in the Titanic disaster; only 711 survived.

b. Despite warnings about the presence of icebergs, the captain allowed the Titanic to continue at high
speed.

c. If the ship had hit the iceberg head-on, its watertight compartments might have kept it from sinking;
however, it hit on the side, resulting in a long, jagged gash through which water poured in.

d. The Titanic, equipped with the very best communication systems available in 1912, sent out SOS
messages.

e. When the captain gave orders to abandon the Titanic, many passengers refused because they
believed the ship was unsinkable, so many lifeboats were only partly filled.

Rearrange the following paragraph in its logical arrangement.

PARAGRAPH
a. India is one of the worst countries for women to live in because Indian society dwells
on misogyny and patriarchy as their core social structures.
b. Apart from this grim reality, thousands of cases of sexual harassment, stalking,
catcalling, voyeurism, and domestic violence go unreported due to immense social
pressures.
c. The crime statistics of India for the year 2020 provide ample examples of Indian men's
misogynistic and patriarchal tendencies.
d. Hence, such an environment is very toxic for women to live in because committing
acts of violence against women on an everyday basis has become a norm.
e. For instance, twenty women are raped every 13 minutes; six women are gang-raped
every day; the brides lose the battle for their life to dowry every 69 minutes, and 19
women are victims of acid attacks every month.

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Read any one of the essays given below and identify the crucial elements of development highlighted
in the table below
An Appeal to the Senses: The Development of the Braille System in Nineteenth-Century France
The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of
disability. The writing system of raised dots used by visually impaired
people was developed by Louis Braille in nineteenth-century France. In a
society that did not value disabled people in general, blindness was
particularly stigmatized, and lack of access to reading and writing was a
significant barrier to social participation. The idea of tactile reading was
not entirely new, but existing methods based on sighted systems were
difficult to learn and use. As the first writing system designed for blind
people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not
only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural
status of blindness. This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind
people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of
Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education.
Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on
blind people’s social and cultural lives.
Lack of access to reading and writing put blind people at a serious
disadvantage in nineteenth-century society. Text was one of the primary
methods through which people engaged with culture, communicated with
others, and accessed information; without a well-developed reading
system that did not rely on sight, blind people were excluded from social
participation (Weygand, 2009). While disabled people in general suffered
from discrimination, blindness was widely viewed as the worst disability,
and it was commonly believed that blind people were incapable of
pursuing a profession or improving themselves through culture (Weygand,
2009). This demonstrates the importance of reading and writing to social
status at the time: without access to text, it was considered impossible to
fully participate in society. Blind people were excluded from the sighted
world, but also entirely dependent on sighted people for information and
education.
In France, debates about how to deal with disability led to the adoption of
different strategies over time. While people with temporary difficulties
were able to access public welfare, the most common response to people
with long-term disabilities, such as hearing or vision loss, was to group
them together in institutions (Tombs, 1996). At first, a joint institute for
the blind and deaf was created, and although the partnership was
motivated more by financial considerations than by the well-being of the
residents, the institute aimed to help people develop skills valuable to
society (Weygand, 2009). Eventually blind institutions were separated
from deaf institutions, and the focus shifted towards education of the
blind, as was the case for the Royal Institute for Blind Youth, which Louis
Braille attended (Jimenez et al, 2009). The growing acknowledgement of
the uniqueness of different disabilities led to more targeted education
strategies, fostering an environment in which the benefits of a specifically
blind education could be more widely recognized.
Several different systems of tactile reading can be seen as forerunners to
the method Louis Braille developed, but these systems were all developed
based on the sighted system. The Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris
taught the students to read embossed roman letters, a method created by
the school’s founder, Valentin Hauy (Jimenez et al., 2009). Reading this
way proved to be a rather arduous task, as the letters were difficult to
distinguish by touch. The embossed letter method was based on the
reading system of sighted people, with minimal adaptation for those with
vision loss. As a result, this method did not gain significant success among
blind students.
Louis Braille was bound to be influenced by his school’s founder, but the
most influential pre-Braille tactile reading system was Charles Barbier’s
night writing. A soldier in Napoleon’s army, Barbier developed a system in
1819 that used 12 dots with a five line musical staff (Kersten, 1997). His
intention was to develop a system that would allow the military to
communicate at night without the need for light (Herron, 2009). The code
developed by Barbier was phonetic (Jimenez et al., 2009); in other words,
the code was designed for sighted people and was based on the sounds of
words, not on an actual alphabet. Barbier discovered that variants of
raised dots within a square were the easiest method of reading by touch
(Jimenez et al., 2009). This system proved effective for the transmission of
short messages between military personnel, but the symbols were too
large for the fingertip, greatly reducing the speed at which a message
could be read (Herron, 2009). For this reason, it was unsuitable for daily
use and was not widely adopted in the blind community.
Nevertheless, Barbier’s military dot system was more efficient than
Hauy’s embossed letters, and it provided the framework within which
Louis Braille developed his method. Barbier’s system, with its dashes and
dots, could form over 4000 combinations (Jimenez et al., 2009). Compared
to the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, this was an absurdly high number.
Braille kept the raised dot form, but developed a more manageable system
that would reflect the sighted alphabet. He replaced Barbier’s dashes and
dots with just six dots in a rectangular configuration (Jimenez et al.,
2009). The result was that the blind population in France had a tactile
reading system using dots (like Barbier’s) that was based on the structure
of the sighted alphabet (like Hauy’s); crucially, this system was the first
developed specifically for the purposes of the blind.
While the Braille system gained immediate popularity with the blind
students at the Institute in Paris, it had to gain acceptance among the
sighted before its adoption throughout France. This support was
necessary because sighted teachers and leaders had ultimate control over
the propagation of Braille resources. Many of the teachers at the Royal
Institute for Blind Youth resisted learning Braille’s system because they
found the tactile method of reading difficult to learn (Bullock & Galst,
2009). This resistance was symptomatic of the prevalent attitude that the
blind population had to adapt to the sighted world rather than develop
their own tools and methods. Over time, however, with the increasing
impetus to make social contribution possible for all, teachers began to
appreciate the usefulness of Braille’s system (Bullock & Galst, 2009),
realizing that access to reading could help improve the productivity and
integration of people with vision loss. It took approximately 30 years, but
the French government eventually approved the Braille system, and it was
established throughout the country (Bullock & Galst, 2009).
Although Blind people remained marginalized throughout the nineteenth
century, the Braille system granted them growing opportunities for social
participation. Most obviously, Braille allowed people with vision loss to
read the same alphabet used by sighted people (Bullock & Galst, 2009),
allowing them to participate in certain cultural experiences previously
unavailable to them. Written works, such as books and poetry, had
previously been inaccessible to the blind population without the aid of a
reader, limiting their autonomy. As books began to be distributed in
Braille, this barrier was reduced, enabling people with vision loss to
access information autonomously. The closing of the gap between the
abilities of blind and the sighted contributed to a gradual shift in blind
people’s status, lessening the cultural perception of the blind as
essentially different and facilitating greater social integration.
The Braille system also had important cultural effects beyond the sphere
of written culture. Its invention later led to the development of a music
notation system for the blind, although Louis Braille did not develop this
system himself (Jimenez, et al., 2009). This development helped remove a
cultural obstacle that had been introduced by the popularization of
written musical notation in the early 1500s. While music had previously
been an arena in which the blind could participate on equal footing, the
transition from memory-based performance to notation-based
performance meant that blind musicians were no longer able to compete
with sighted musicians (Kersten, 1997). As a result, a tactile musical
notation system became necessary for professional equality between blind
and sighted musicians (Kersten, 1997).
Braille paved the way for dramatic cultural changes in the way blind
people were treated and the opportunities available to them. Louis
Braille’s innovation was to reimagine existing reading systems from a
blind perspective, and the success of this invention required sighted
teachers to adapt to their students’ reality instead of the other way
around. In this sense, Braille helped drive broader social changes in the
status of blindness. New accessibility tools provide practical advantages
to those who need them, but they can also change the perspectives and
attitudes of those who do not.
Opening remarks
Thesis statement
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Plan of development
Topic sentence 1
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Specific supporting evidence

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Topic sentence 2
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Specific supporting evidence

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Topic sentence 3
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Specific supporting evidence
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Summary, closing remarks, or both

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